


Dragons Aren't as Bad as Titans

by Raevell



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Protectiveness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-15
Updated: 2013-10-15
Packaged: 2017-12-29 11:56:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1005141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raevell/pseuds/Raevell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before the book of the outside world became his favorite, there were other ones Eren enjoyed sharing with Armin. He related to the tales of valiant knights and their duty to protect the innocent from dragons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dragons Aren't as Bad as Titans

Eren had always been a rowdy child, never able to sit still, with a knack for getting into anything and everything he shouldn’t. He had driven his mother up many walls, many times, and she had learned quickly that with a child as energetic as Eren, getting him out of the house to blow off some steam was a necessity.

Being outside in the fresh air was invigorating to Eren, who would find plenty to amuse himself with. He wasn’t interested in any of the other kids his age though, no matter how much his mother or father tried to prompt a friendship. Kids were mean, Eren had decided, always creating stupid hierarchies and picking on ones who didn’t fit a certain role. Kids were ‘dumb’ he would often remark and being blunt as he was, had no reservations when it came to saying it to their faces.

It got him kicked out of every group his Mother had tried to place him in. Eren didn’t care though, content to be alone, creating stories in his mind of fighting evil doers, or sometimes titans, swinging around swords made from branches. He was happy enough going on his own adventures.

Then he had met Armin, who he had concluded quite quickly was smart and nice, nothing at all like the other kids. He also realized that perhaps he wasn’t as happy going on adventures alone as he thought. There was something that added to the narrative, having another voice there, and Armin was always coming up with new things to imagine influenced by the most recent book he had read.

Even before their dreams of the outside world emerged, Eren would only ever sit still when Armin brought over a book for them to share. It was a marvel to his parents how Armin could evoke such calm from Eren who was always overflowing with boundless energy.

One book, Eren had become fond of immediately, was about a make-believe world where people called ‘Knights’ would don heavy armor, much like those of soldiers long ago, and go off to fight for the sake of others. They weren’t fighting titans, but rather wondrous reptilian creatures called dragons that had the ability to fly and to conjure fire right out of their mouths. Eren, one day, went on about how much easier it would be to fight dragons if they had 3D maneuver gear. Piercing its scales with a hook, the knights would be able to pull themselves right up onto the dragons back.

Of course, Armin pointed out to him that it would be impossible to use maneuver gear while wearing such heavy armor.

“I think they’d be better off with the 3D maneuver gear… What good is all that armor gonna do if the dragon just sets you on fire?”

They were sitting on the top story of Eren’s house, book laid out on the ground in front of them while Eren’s mother hung laundry on a nearby rack. The remark gave Armin a genuine pause, eyes looking up in wonder, and Eren knew that he was now giving it some real thought.

“It probably would be better, you’d be able to get out of the way a lot easier without being weighed down by all that armor…but a dragon can move a lot faster than a titan. They’re really smart too, so they would probably think to cut your wire from a high place so you’d fall, anyway…”

Eren smiled. It was one of the things he really liked about Armin, his ability to think things through and his willingness to indulge his questions without calling him stupid or telling him he was over analyzing trivial things.

“If they’re so smart though, how come they’re always capturing princesses?” Eren remarked as he flipped through a few pages before pointing down at an illustration of a woman dressed in elaborate clothing with a crown on her head, being held within the talons of a fierce looking dragon. “I mean, people are gonna miss a princess, you’ll get a whole army after you.”

Armin tilted head to the side as he pondered the words. While he thought it over, Eren flipped absentmindedly through the book, finally landing on a picture that stood out to him. This one had the illustration of the knight, bent down on one knee, kissing the hand of the fair maiden he had saved after his long fight with the beast that had kidnapped her.

Armin finally came up with an answer. “I think it’s more because the princess is beautiful. Dragons like beautiful things, that’s why they collect gold and diamonds, and all these different kinds of gems.”

“Huh. So, the dragon takes them because they’re pretty?” Eren mused aloud, fixated on Armin now instead of the book.

“Well, I think that would make sense, anyway. It probably all depends on the dragon though…” Armin nodded slowly. Then he lifted his gaze up to meet Eren’s. He blinked back at him several times. “What is it?”

Eren’s expression had apparently been enough to convey how he was thinking of something intently now.

“If dragons take people because they’re pretty, then you’d be in a lot of danger, if they were real,” Eren explained to him and found it comical how quick Armin’s eyes were to widen. It caused him to laugh and meanwhile Armin scrambled suddenly to pick up the book.

“W-what? I’m not pretty,” he insisted, pulling the book up close to his face. He wasn’t so fast that Eren didn’t notice the red hue of his cheeks before he hid himself behind the cover.

“Of course you’re pretty,” Eren reached over to tug on his sleeve, wanting him to drop the book, but Armin reacted to the tugging by pulling the book closer to his face, leaving only the peak of his head visible behind it. “You’re the prettiest person I know besides my Mom.”

When Armin wouldn’t drop the book, Eren crawled in front of him, placed his hands over the top of the parted pages and yanked it out of Armin’s grip. Armin groaned in protest and with the book no longer able to hide his bright red face, he brought his hands up to take over the job instead.

“What are you getting all embarrassed about?” Eren asked him with another laugh, carefully setting the book back down before taking Armin’s by his wrists to pull his hands away as well, leaving him with nothing to hide behind. “You scared you gonna get snatched away by a dragon? Hiding your face isn’t gonna help.”

His blue eyes met Eren’s green ones and he pouted back at him. “No dragon would want me.”

“Lots of dragons would want you,” Eren let go of his wrists to press his hands up against Armin’s cheeks, squishing his face in response. “It’s okay! You don’t have to be afraid, because if a dragon takes you away I’ll fight them for you!”

“W-what? No, you wouldn’t…would you?” Armin shook off Eren’s hands and swatted them away lightly.

“Of course I would!” when Eren said it, he meant it. Staring back at Armin, he knocked their foreheads together gently. “I would fight a hundred dragons to save you.”

“Eren…” Armin grumbled his name and Eren could tell he was embarrassing him as his cheeks became rosy once more.

“I promise, okay?” Eren grinned back at him and tangled his fingers up in Armin’s blonde hair. “I promise I’ll always save you.”

Dragons were not at all like the stories they had read about as children. Dragons were bigger boys with bruised fists, with wicked grins that didn’t contain any fangs but were terrifying nonetheless. Instead of breathing literal fire, they spoke words that burned just as severe as any flame.

Eren kept his promise. As fierce as any knight, he told himself, though he lacked the title and the armor and often gained many battle scars, whenever he saw those boys, those ‘dragons’ picking on Armin, he rushed to his aid. To Eren, he was doing nothing more than what any heroic knight would, saving the person they cared for when they were in danger.

As they got older, Armin shared different books with him. Their favorite became the one about the ocean, about the lands of sand, the fields of ice. It became a daily routine, memorizing every page, tracing over every picture with their fingers.

The bullying became worse, as the children in the village became aware of his and Armin’s dreams of seeing the outside world. Armin always received the worse of it, since he didn’t put up the physical resistance that Eren did. While his words were effective they also tended to anger some of the other boys and cause them to do more harm towards him.

Eren admired it though. Armin was fighting back in his own way.

So, the frequency and brutality of the bullying became more severe. It didn’t matter to Eren how many times he had to fight or how often. He threw himself into every fray without a second thought.

His chest burned with enough anger that the heat distracted from the pain of another punch to the face that he had been given that day.

Hand wrapped around Armin’s, the two of them made their way towards Eren’s house with skinned knees and new bruises. Eren’s cheek was throbbing, swollen along the bone. He would become more aware of it later, when he no longer had adrenaline pumping through him. Right now, he had a one-track mind and his focus was purely on getting Armin into the safety of his home.

His goal was delayed however, when he heard sniffling he thought had already ended and small sobs began to sneak their way out of Armin’s throat. Eren stopped right away, turned around to face the blonde and the motion must have been too abrupt because Armin winced.

“What is it? Does it hurt somewhere really bad?” Eren questioned, hand still gently holding his.

“…you have to stop doing that.”

The words surprised and bewildered him. Eren blinked, tilted his head, and emphasized his confusion with a small, “Huh?”

“You should just stay out of it,” Armin elaborated, arm coming up to wipe his away tears with his torn sleeve. “It's my fight. They wouldn’t pick on you so much if you didn’t keep coming to save me—“

“I’m not gonna stop coming to save you!” Eren protested before Armin fully finished the thought.

The implication was nothing short of absurd to him. Pulling on Armin’s hand, he began walking again, an indication that he had no desire to discuss it anymore than that. But Armin slipped out of his grip with a rough tug.

“No, Eren! Listen to me, it’s better if only one of us gets beat up, isn’t it?” there he went, trying to be logical through the flow of tears that kept streaming down his face. “I mean, we can’t beat them, neither one of us is strong enough, so what’s the use in you getting involved?”

“I don’t care if I’m not strong enough _yet_ ,” he wanted to make it clear that that was only temporary. “I’m still going to try!”

“Why?!” Armin yelled back at him, foot stepping forward and landing harshly against the ground. “It doesn’t make sense, there's no point in us both getting hurt!”

“Because!”

 Eren clenched his hands briefly as though he could catch the right words out of the air. Looking down at his feet, brows knit together, he wished he could surmise his feelings exactly, and get Armin to realize how fruitless it was trying to convince him to stop helping him whenever he was getting picked on.

He reached for Armin’s hand again, the one now hanging at his side. He felt Armin resist, try to pull back, but Eren tightened his grip to keep him from doing so. Holding that hand, their palms pressed together, Eren dropped down to one knee.

“E-Eren, what are you doing?” the emotion in Armin’s voice now matched Eren’s earlier confusion.

Kneeling in front of him, Eren leaned forward to kiss the back of his hand softly, mimicking the illustrations the two of them had gone over and over again when they were younger, of a knight kissing the hand of the princess he had managed to save.

When he tilted his head to look up at Armin again, his friend’s mouth was agape and his face was entirely red. He was completely still as he looked down at Eren, meeting his gaze, as Eren tried to explain.

“I know I’m not the best at being a knight… But when you’re in danger, I have to come save you.”

“Eren, stop, this isn’t a game—“ Armin began and Eren quickly interrupted.

“I’m not playing around,” his voice was firm and held sincerity. “I made a vow to always protect you and I meant it. I don't care who or what I have to fight, if you're in danger, I have to at least try to help you. I can’t just standby and do nothing! Even if I can’t beat them, I have to fight for you!”

Armin’s bottom lip trembled and the tears became more frequent. Eren frowned, thinking he had just made everything worse, that perhaps his actions hadn’t been enough and he hadn’t communicated what he was thinking very well. Eyes downcast, Eren slumped over, and his hand began to slip from Armin’s.

“…I’m sorry I’m such a crummy knight,” he finally muttered.

“You’re not a crummy knight!” Armin insisted, causing Eren to look back up at him. Rubbing his sleeve frantically against his eyes, Armin took a deep breath. His hand shifted to grip Eren’s more securely, before it could fall away. “You’re not… You’re strong and you’re brave. You never give up, even when the odds are against you… You’re everything a knight is supposed to be.”

The words stirred awake a light in Eren’s eyes. He stood up again, smile stretched across his face.

“One day, we’ll both be strong enough to fight them off. Once we join the Survey Corps and go through training! It’ll be different then and we’ll travel all over the world together!” Eren said and went rambling on as the two of them resumed walking, once again his mind wrapped up in thoughts about their future and their dreams.

“Yeah, one day…” Armin had agreed.

Their hands remained locked together on the way home. Even once they got there, neither one of them let go as Eren’s father tended to fresh wounds.

Eren never forgot those days they spent together or the vow he made. Even as reality ruined so much of his imagination and thoughts of knights fighting dragons seemed like a lackluster horror in comparison to fighting titans, he held the promise he had made close to his heart and the sincerity of it did not diminish.

It made it easy, that day at Trost, to fight for the other boy when he was dropped into that titan’s mouth.

Jumping in after Armin hadn’t even warranted consideration. Armin was in danger and he needed to save him, that was the only thing that had mattered to Eren, there was no choice involved.

Even as the titan’s teeth came together, sinking through his arm with ease, seeing Armin alive in front of him before everything went dark kept him from having any regrets about it as he was swallowed. If nothing else, at least he had kept his word towards him.

It would be many weeks later before the emotions of the situation surfaced again. While standing outside in the courtyard of the Survey Corps headquarters, the two of them had been enjoying the warm afternoon, when out of the blue, Armin spoke up.

“You saved me…just like you always do.”

It had been so sudden, couldn't be related to their previous conversation in anyway, but Eren knew immediately what Armin was referring to when he said it.

“Armin—“

The blonde boy lowered his head. “I’m sorry, Eren. After all these years, I thought it would be different, that you wouldn't have to protect me anymore, but I still... I couldn't do anything.”

Eren took his hand, entwined their fingers together and squeezed tightly, causing Armin to look up towards him.

“Stop it. You repaid me for that, did you forget already?” he held his eyes with his. “You saved me too. If you hadn’t been able to convince those soldiers that I was on their side, they would have killed us all. It’s not the first time you’ve saved my life either, Armin.”

He saw a light, the flicker of a flame in those blue eyes when he said it.

“Eren—“

“When are you finally going to get that I rely on you just as much as you rely on me?”

Armin suddenly collapsed against his chest, shaking as tears began spilling over. Eren felt like the years had been erased and he was looking at Armin as he was as a child, with tear-stained cheeks and bloodshot eyes, sobbing his name. All he could do was hold him, feeling that no words right then would be enough to calm him.

But he noted even as the tension began to fade and cries became quiet, Armin didn’t question him on the matter. He didn’t ask why he had done such a crazy thing for him, why he had given up his life for him. Alive as he was now, there had been no way of knowing at the time he would survive the situation.

Armin remembered the promise, just as Eren did. He knew there was nothing to discuss concerning it, as there was nothing that could be said to get Eren to abandon the vow he had made all those years ago.

As the last tears fell, Armin said nothing. Instead, he cupped Eren’s face in his hands and leaned in to kiss him, like an image right out of the book they used to read together. This was no reward for saving him, however, it was something much more. It was tender and giving, lips soft against his, and Eren’s eyes fell closed to take in the sensation and accept what was an exchange of their hearts. The warmth was indescribable that filled up his chest and Eren hoped desperately it would never fully leave him.

Human, dragon, beast, or titan, it didn’t matter. Eren would always fight to protect Armin from them all. He would continue to save Armin whenever he was in danger and he knew that Armin would continue to save him as well.

 


End file.
